Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Mild Showdown


Recently, I heard of an interesting beer from Invercargill Breweries: 'Not on your Nally' (2.7%). This beer came about when a contract brew of Yeastie Boys Kid Chocolate went awry and brewer Steve Nally was tasked with saving it.
He most certainly did save it, and now it is available exclusively at the brewery on FYO taps. I'm not in Invercargill, so I ordered some riggers via e-mail and threw in some extras for various other SOBA members, to fill up the box. Today 12.5 litres of quality Invercargill beer arrived on my doorstep (mosty Smokin' Bishop).
Coincedentally I also have a bottle of Yeastie Boys Kid Chocolate(3.6%), what luck! Time to taste them side by side.

While still being very similar, these are definately different beers. The colour of NOYN is slightly darker, probably due to the slight haze as this was not filtered like KC.

On the left, the unfiltered NOYN. On the right, the filtered KC.

Flavours are similar in both beers. They are subtle, but the sum of its parts is greater than the whole. Initially nutty, fading to a fruity middle, then the malt comes back with coffee in the finish. The main difference is in the body of the beers. NOYN seems a little watery, while KC has a more robust backbone, and more mouthfilling flavours - probably due to the higher alcohol. Also, KC is distinctly more bitter.

Overall, Kid Chocolate wins. Why do people drink watery horsepiss low alcohol beer when things like these exist??